* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

† Appearances (Goals).

Ricardo Alexandre Martins Soares Pereira, OIH (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʁiˈkaɾdu]; born 11 February 1976), simply known as Ricardo, is a retired Portuguese professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

He spent most of his career with Boavista and Sporting, helping the former to its only Primeira Liga title and appearing with the latter in more than 150 official games, winning one Portuguese Cup. In his 30s he moved abroad, representing mainly Betis.

On 9 July 2007 Ricardo was linked with a transfer to La Liga side Real Betis and, two days later, he signed a four-year contract with the club.[4] His league debut took place against Recreativo de Huelva on 26 August, a 1–1 away draw;[5] having started the season as first-choice, he eventually lost the position to Betis trainee Casto, but would regain his status for two of the last three games as the Andalusia team avoided relegation.

In 2008–09, as manager Francisco Chaparro, who arrived midway through the previous season, started on the bench, Ricardo lost the battle for first-choice, having to settle with Copa del Rey matches, a situation which would revert midway through the campaign as Betis eventually suffered relegation; the following year, he backed-up Iñaki Goitia, playing no matches in an eventual fourth place in the league (no promotion).

Ricardo was not given any jersey number for the 2010–11 season, being limited to training with the Pepe Mel-led squad, and later released from his contract in January 2011 – it was due to expire in June of that year.

In the quarterfinals of UEFA Euro 2004 against England, Ricardo was one of Portugal's heroes in their win on penalties. With a 5–5 tie he first saved the shot of Darius Vassell after taking his gloves off, and then scored the deciding penalty to send Portugal to the semi-finals.[11]

Nevertheless, Ricardo did not manage to help his team avoid the loss to Greece in the final match: he misjudged a corner when coming for the ball, only for Angelos Charisteas to head the only goal of the game.

In the 2006 FIFA World Cup group stage, Ricardo kept two clean sheets and was only beaten once, by Mexico's Francisco Fonseca, as Portugal won all three matches. The national side once again knocked out England in the quarter-finals of a major tournament on penalties, as he saved from Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, in a 3–1 shootout win after a 0–0 draw with extra time, becoming the first keeper to save three times in a World Cup shootout; Carragher did beat him, but since his attempt was made before the referee blew the whistle the Englishman had to retry the spot kick which was then saved.[12]

In the third-place match against hosts Germany, Ricardo allowed three goals, two by Bastian Schweinsteiger and an own goal by Portugal's Petit, which also resulted from Schweinsteiger's shot.[13] He was named to the tournament All-Star team, as one of the three best goalkeepers.

Despite some criticism, Ricardo remained the main goalkeeper for Portugal in Euro 2008. Portugal struggled initially but did qualify for the quarter-finals, and he played all of the side's matches as it was eliminated by Germany 3–2 in the quarter-finals, where he misjudged in two box exits, allowing two headers.[14] As he lost his position at Betis he would not be called for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, with S.L. Benfica's Quim being made the starter (although he would be also later replaced by Eduardo).